Sceva

VIEW:26 DATA:01-04-2020
disposed; prepared
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


SCEVA.—At Ephesus, where St. Paul worked ‘special powers’ (Act_19:11 ff.), certain itinerant Jews (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘strolling’ perhaps conveys too much the idea of ‘vagabond’) endeavoured to exorcise evil spirits by naming over them the name of Jesus. Among them were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish ‘chief priest’ (probably one of the high-priestly family). In Act_19:16 the demoniac overcomes ‘both of them’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). Sceva himself is not said to have been present. The incident led to many conversions, and several brought and destroyed their books of magic.
There is a difficulty in the text. Seven sons are mentioned in Act_19:14, and these are reduced to two in Act_19:16. Perhaps St. Luke is here abbreviating a written source which detailed the incident more fully, and explained that two out of the seven sons tried to exorcise this particular demon. Inferior MSS (followed by AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) substitute ‘them’ for ‘both of them,’ and the Bezan Codex (D [Note: Deuteronomist.] ) omits the word ‘seven’ altogether, calls Sceva merely ‘a priest,’ and adds other phrases which are expansions of our text. But these seem to be but explanations of a difficult original text; and the RV [Note: Revised Version.] is probably correct. The word ‘seven’ could never have been inserted if it were not St. Luke’s.
Prof. Ramsay thinks that the whole passage is unworthy of Luke (St. Paul the Traveller6, p. 272f.). But it is unsafe to judge first-century thought by that of our own day. The Apostolic age firmly believed in possession by evil spirits; and there is really nothing in this chapter unlike what we read elsewhere in NT.
A. J. Maclean.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


A "chief priest", i.e. once having been high priest, or else chief of the priests at Ephesus, or of one of the 24 courses. His seven sons, Jews, exorcised demons in Jesus' name, whereupon the demon-possessed leaped on two of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded: (Act_19:14-16; the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts read "prevailed against both".)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Sce'va. A Jew, residing at Ephesus, at the time of St. Paul's second visit to that town. Act_19:14-16. (A.D. 52).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a Jew, and chief of the priests, Act_19:14-16. He was probably a person of authority in the synagogue at Ephesus, and had seven sons.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


sē?va (Σκευᾶ, Skeuá): A Jew, a chief priest, resident in Ephesus, whose seven sons were exorcists (Act_19:14 ff). Ewald regards the name as being Hebrew shekhabhyāh. He was not an officiating priest, as there were only synagogues in Asia Minor. He may have belonged to a high-priestly family, or perhaps at one time he had been at the head of one of the 24 courses in the temple.
In the narrative the construction is loose. There were seven sons (Act_19:14), and it would appear (Act_19:16) that in this particular case all were present. But (Act_19:16) the demon-possessed man over-powered ?both of them.? Textus Receptus of the New Testament gets over the difficulty by omitting ?both,? but Codices Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Bezae, so Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, von Soden, and the best critics, retain the difficult reading. The explanation is that Act_19:14 states the custom: ?who did this? being hoi toúto poioúntes, ?who used to do this.? Act_19:15 and Act_19:16 state a particular case in which two took part, but the incident is introduced in a careless manner.
Ewald would translate amphotérōn as ?in both sides,? but this is impossible. Baur understood ?disciples? for ?sons.? Codex Bezae and Syriac have an interesting expansion which Blass considers original (Act_19:14): ?Among whom also the sons (Syriac 'seven') of a certain Sceva, a priest, wished to do the same, (who) were in the custom of exorcising such. And entering into the demon-possessed man they began to call upon the Name, saying, 'We charge you by Jesus whom Paul preaches to come out.' ?

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Sceva
(properly Skeuas, Σεκευᾶς), a Jew residing at Ephesus at the time of Paul's second visit to that city (Act_19:14-16), A.D. 52. He is described as a “high priest” (ἀρχιερεύς.), either as having exercised the office at Jerusalem, or as being chief of one of the twenty-four classes. His seven sons attempted to exorcise spirits by using the name of Jesus, and on one occasion severe injury was inflicted by the demoniac on two of them (as implied in the term ἀμφοτέρων, the true reading in Act_19:16 instead of αὐτῶν).

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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